Some musical instruments such as a bass, a viola, a violin, a guitar and other “string instruments” employ a plurality of strings that when contacted by a bow, plucked, strummed or otherwise contacted vibrate to create a particular musical note or notes. The nature of the musical notes produced by the vibrating strings is dependent on the string material, composition, thickness, tension, etc., which is understood by those of skill in the art. Continued use of the musical instrument will eventually cause the strings to slacken, elongate, or otherwise deform, thereby detrimentally altering the notes produced thereby. To address this effect, tuning pegs are used to selectively tighten and slacken a given string in an attempt to achieve a desired performance. Over time, however, selective tuning measures will become less effective or will not work and the musical instrument will need to be restrung. Stringing and restringing a musical instrument is difficult, frustrating, and time consuming.
Guitars tend to require frequent restringing because of the vigorous way they are often played. The strings of a guitar vary from 0.008 inches to 0.05 inches in diameter and are made of a metallic material, such as nickel, bronze or stainless steel wire. Due to the inherent ductility of the string material, strings will tend to elongate over time, thereby altering their vibrational characteristics. Accordingly, professional guitar players often need to resting their guitar prior to each show.
Some guitar bridges include an axle that receives a first end of a guitar string. The first end of the guitar string employs an axle interconnection member, such as a spool or a ball, that selectively engages a pin or recess or other gripping device associated with the axle. In operation, one engages the guitar string spool onto the axle, wraps the string around the axle, and interconnects a second end of the string to a tuning peg located on a headstock portion of the guitar. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, such a process is difficult in that the new strings are somewhat inflexible and, thus, resistant to curling around the axle. More specifically, when the user does not hold the new string in place while interconnecting the second end to the tuning peg, the first end of the string will tend to recoil which disengages the spool from the axle. Often, individuals do not have sufficient dexterity and/or arm length to hold the first end of the guitar string against the axle to prevent recoil while interconnecting the second end to the tuning peg. Thus guitar stringing is often frustrating and time consuming.
Thus, it is a long felt need to provide a device that facilitates the stringing of a musical instrument that will aid expert guitar stringers and novices alike. The following disclosure describes a device that maintains the engagement of the first end of a guitar string with the bridge, thereby freeing an individual's hands to interconnect the second end of the string to the tuning peg.